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Francis Lovell, 1st Viscount Lovell
From the longer Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Lovell,_1st_Viscount_Lovell Francis Lovell, 9th Baron Lovell, 6th Baron Holand, later 1st Viscount Lovell KG (1454 – after 1488) was an English nobleman. He probably knew the later King Richard III of England from a young age, and was to become his lifelong friend and staunch ally. Francis was the son of John Lovell, 8th Baron Lovell and Joan Beaumont, daughter of John Beaumont, 1st Viscount Beaumont. When his father died, the nine-year old Francis inherited the titles of Baron Lovell and Baron Holand. He became a ward of Edward IV of England, who gave him into the charge of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, where Edward's youngest brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester also spent some time. It was there that the two young men first formed their close association. Lovell became a follower of his friend, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, to whom he was also linked through their respective marriages: his wife, Anne (aka Agnes) FitzHugh was the first cousin of Richard's wife Anne Neville. Lovell served under Richard in the expedition to Scotland in 1480, and was knighted by Richard for it, the same year. After the death of Edward IV on 9 April 1483 he became one of his patron’s strongest supporters. He had been created a viscount on 4 January 1483, and while still Lord Protector Richard made him Chief Butler and constable of Wallingford Castle. Richard acceded to the throne on 26 June 1483; at his coronation on 6 July 1483, Francis Lovell bore the third sword of state.] Lovell was promoted to the office of Lord Chamberlain, replacing the late William Hastings, and was made a Knight of the Garter in 1483. Lovell helped in the suppression of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham’s rebellion (1483). In July 1484, William Collingbourne, a Tudor agent, tacked up a lampooning poem to St. Paul's Cathedral, which mentions Lovell, whose family's heraldic symbol was a silver wolf, among the three aides to King Richard, whose emblem was a white boar: 'The Catte, the Ratte and Lovell our dogge rulyth all Englande under a hogge.' In June 1485, Lovell was appointed to guard the south coast to prevent the landing of Henry Tudor. However, Henry Tudor landed near Milford Haven avoiding the stronger defences of the English south coast. While no chronicle account of the battle mentions Lovell, it seems certain that he fought for Richard at the Battle of Bosworth Field (22 August 1485). Two reports written in the immediate aftermath of the battle list him as among the fallen. In fact, he escaped. After the battle, Lovell fled to sanctuary at Colchester and from there escaped the following year to organise a revolt in Yorkshire that attempted to seize Henry VII. After the failure of this plot, Lovell first joined fellow rebels at Furness Falls and later fled to Margaret of York in Flanders. As a chief leader of the Yorkist party, Lovell took a prominent part in Lambert Simnel’s enterprise. With John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, he accompanied the pretender to Ireland and fought for him at the Battle of Stoke Field on 16 June 1487. He was seen escaping from the battle and seems to have eventually fled to Scotland, where on 19 June 1488 James IV issued a safe conduct to him. There is no further information about Lovell's fate. Francis Lovell's wife, Anne Fitzhugh, was granted an annuity of £20 in 1489. She was still alive in 1495; the date of her death is not known. Francis Bacon relates that according to one report he lived long after in a cave or vault (History of Henry VII, p. 37, ed. Joseph Rawson Lumby). More than 200 years later, in 1708, the skeleton of a man was found in a secret chamber in the family mansion at Minster Lovell in Oxfordshire and it was supposed that Lovell had hidden himself there and died of starvation. While this story is very picturesque, it seems unlikely to be true. Francis Lovell had hardly spent any time at Minster Lovell and would not have a faithful servant there who would hide him for years. Additionally, the manor had been granted to Jasper Tudor, Henry Tudor's uncle, and was therefore hardly an appropriate hiding place for Francis Lovell. Category:Biographies Category:England Category:15th century